Edited—

Back on the street, Zhou Jiayu realized the entire road was completely empty. The sky was a dull gray. Snowflakes still drifted down—some landing in Zhou Jiayu’s hair, others on the back of his hand. The snowflakes felt strange to the touch. Zhou Jiayu raised his hand and looked, discovering that the snow was mixed with something like dust. The appearance of this dust reminded him of the fine paper ash left behind after burning spirit money during their ancestral worship a few days prior.

Standing alone on this street, it was hard not to feel a sense of panic. Jiba told Zhou Jiayu to stay calm, saying that Lin Zhushui and the others would definitely find a way to bring him back, and told him to pay close attention to his surroundings.

Zhou Jiayu randomly found a stall in a relatively concealed location and sat down. These stalls were identical to those at the temple fair—some of the machines for making small trinkets were even still running.

Zhou Jiayu saw that a cotton candy machine hadn’t been turned off, so he simply made the best of a bad situation, grabbed a stick, sprinkled in some sugar, and started spinning cotton candy.

Jiba watched, dumbstruck: “You still have the leisure for this?”

Zhou Jiayu: “…What else am I supposed to do?”

Jiba: “…” That seemed fair.

Having something to do with his hands made him feel calmer. Zhou Jiayu asked Jiba in detail about his current situation. According to Jiba, this place was the borderland between the human world and the underworld. Yin messengers often escorted souls needing reincarnation through here. Zhou Jiayu was a living soul and still carried the aura of the living, making him easily discovered by yin messengers. That was why Jiba had had him smear incense ash on his forehead to mask his presence.

“So what I saw just now were yin messengers?” Zhou Jiayu felt those few black shadows had looked rather strange.

“No,” Jiba said. “This place is essentially a wilderness. Not only are there yin messengers, but there are also dirty things that specifically like eating souls. These dirty things are fierce—sometimes they even attack yin messengers in groups, robbing the souls they’re escorting… Sigh, to put it plainly, this place is even more dangerous than the underworld. If a soul really gets eaten here, there won’t even be a chance to reincarnate.”

After hearing this, Zhou Jiayu felt he should be afraid, but his heart didn’t fluctuate much. He even took a bite of the pink cotton candy in his hand. “Then where should we hide?”

Jiba said, “Stay around here. Don’t wander far, or Lin Zhushui will have trouble finding you.” From the way he spoke, he clearly had immense confidence in Lin Zhushui, certain that he would come for Zhou Jiayu.

As the two were talking, the sound of a night watchman’s clapper came from the distance. The clapper struck continuously, distant and drawn-out, inducing a drowsy feeling.

Hearing the sound, Zhou Jiayu quickly hid behind a table.

“Bang—bang—bang—” The clapper sounds were unceasing. Zhou Jiayu crouched in the corner, watching them approach.

There were about a dozen or so of them. Though they were standing right before Zhou Jiayu, he couldn’t make out their faces. They walked with extremely stiff postures, as if they had no consciousness at all. Only the leader striking the clapper moved slightly more nimbly. This street wasn’t long; the dozen or so people quickly walked from one end to the other, about to disappear from Zhou Jiayu’s sight. Just as Zhou Jiayu was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the group suddenly stopped. The leading yin messenger slowly turned his head and looked in his direction.

Zhou Jiayu’s entire body froze.

That thing had clearly discovered something in Zhou Jiayu’s location. First, it stiffly twisted its head, then slowly turned around and began moving toward him. Unlike the yin messengers Zhou Jiayu had imagined, these things looked more like mindless wandering spirits. From somewhat close, Zhou Jiayu could barely make out its face. Calling it a face was more like a piece of skin, with eyes, nose, and mouth crudely placed upon it. Though the features were complete, they were filled with a twisted sense of wrongness, practically like a plastic mannequin.

A thin layer of goosebumps rose on Zhou Jiayu’s arms. He swallowed and whispered to Jiba, “Is it coming for me?”

Jiba said, “Seems like it…”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Should I run? Can I outrun it?”

Jiba said, “You definitely can’t outrun it here. Wait… Zhou Jiayu…”

Zhou Jiayu heard the trembling in Jiba’s tone. “What is it?”

Jiba said in a shaking voice, “D-don’t look up.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” He hadn’t wanted to look up, but Jiba’s words made him feel something was wrong. Above his neck, it felt cool, as if… as if something was resting on his shoulders.

“What is it?” Zhou Jiayu was practically turning to wood.

Jiba said, “…Hard to describe.”

Zhou Jiayu felt too uncomfortable. He took a deep breath and still raised his head extremely slowly. When he saw what was above his head, Zhou Jiayu was even inwardly grateful that he was currently in soul form—otherwise, he suspected that if he were human, his soul would have flown away from fright.

Floating above his head was a huge black dog. Yet the dog’s face was seventy to eighty percent similar to a human’s, except that the eyes in its sockets were completely white. At this moment, it was panting with its tongue out, drooling, staring at Zhou Jiayu with those white eyes. Its two paws had somehow already rested on Zhou Jiayu’s shoulders.

Zhou Jiayu was so frightened he nearly couldn’t catch his breath. He clutched his wildly beating heart, thinking this world was fucking exhilarating—

Yin messenger ahead, giant dog behind. Zhou Jiayu thought painfully that he was going to die here today. But just then, Zhou Jiayu suddenly felt a wave of heat emanating from his chest. He looked down and discovered that the fish-shaped jade pendant Lin Zhushui had given him was actually emitting a faint warmth.

Pulling the jade pendant out from his clothes, Zhou Jiayu felt as if he had grasped his last lifeline.

Sure enough, the moment the jade pendant was taken out, the dog showed a disgusted expression. It no longer tried to approach Zhou Jiayu, instead turning and running several steps away. And the yin messenger that had been heading for Zhou Jiayu, upon seeing the dog run off, chased in that direction. The yin messenger’s movements didn’t look agile, but its speed was extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, it was behind the dog.

“Awoo!!” The dog was caught by the yin messenger, but it didn’t seem afraid. It turned around and barked madly. Though its face was similar to a human’s, its mouth was extraordinarily large when opened—almost taking up half its entire face.

Seeing the dog’s arrogant attitude, the yin messenger actually slowed its steps, its attitude showing some hesitation, as if weighing the strength of both sides.

Zhou Jiayu had thought they would fight, but who knew that after hesitating for a moment, the yin messenger would actually turn around and leave, leading the dozen or so souls away.

“W-why didn’t they fight?” Zhou Jiayu couldn’t quite understand.

Jiba said, “That dog is probably an extremely fierce vicious spirit. The yin messenger wasn’t confident it could win. Anyway, the vicious spirit didn’t seem very interested in souls, so it simply didn’t bother.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” There was this kind of operation?

The yin messenger left in a hurry with its procession of souls. It clearly harbored heavy dread toward that human-faced dog; it seemed this dog was truly not something easy to deal with.

Seeing the yin messenger gone, the dog showed no intention of leaving. Instead, it began circling around Zhou Jiayu’s hiding spot. Its teeth were sharp and serrated, and when its mouth opened, one could even see sticky saliva hanging from the corners.

Zhou Jiayu noticed that its eyes were filled with greed, but it was clearly afraid of something and didn’t dare approach Zhou Jiayu’s location. Zhou Jiayu licked his lips, clutching the fish-shaped jade pendant at his chest tightly, and tentatively took a step forward.

Sure enough, the moment he stepped forward, the human-faced dog retreated a step, its expression somewhat nervous.

“It’s afraid of me.” Zhou Jiayu breathed a sigh of relief. “Or rather…” afraid of the jade pendant on my chest.

In this short while, the originally somewhat bright sky gradually darkened. The surrounding scenery also began to grow blurry. Only the human-faced dog before him remained, eyeing him covetously.

“Not good…” Jiba said. “Why is it getting dark so fast? You need to find a place to hide first.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “What about the temple we came out of?”

Jiba had originally wanted to say something, but after careful thought, he felt that besides the temple, Zhou Jiayu didn’t really have anywhere else to hide. So he agreed to Zhou Jiayu’s proposal. He just seriously told him that before entering this time, he had to ask the Buddhas inside first. If they didn’t agree, Zhou Jiayu should seek shelter elsewhere.

As Zhou Jiayu walked toward the temple, the human-faced dog followed behind him. And whether it was Zhou Jiayu’s imagination or not, he felt that there seemed to be more than just this one dirty thing around him. But because the snow was falling harder and the sky was dark, he couldn’t see the surroundings clearly and could only guess by feeling.

“Knock, knock, knock.” He politely knocked on the temple door first. Zhou Jiayu somewhat embarrassedly pushed the door open a crack and whispered, “Excuse me, sorry to disturb you again, everyone…” He got stuck here, not knowing how to address the Buddha statues inside. After some deliberation, he chose a more common way of saying it, “Esteemed seniors, this junior means no offense. I just want to stay here for the night. When this junior returns to the world of the living, I will definitely prepare more offerings and paper money for you.”

There was no response, nor any refusal. The inside of the temple was completely silent.

Jiba breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this: “Go in.”

Only then did Zhou Jiayu carefully enter the temple. The moment Zhou Jiayu entered, the red door behind him slammed shut with a bang. He was startled. After looking around and confirming there was nothing there, he exhaled the breath stuck in his chest.

“Awoo, awoo—” The human-faced dog that had followed him couldn’t get in and was howling and whining outside.

Zhou Jiayu was a bit panicked. He clutched the jade pendant in his hand and walked a bit further inside. The red door of the temple didn’t look thick; one could even call it flimsy. From Zhou Jiayu’s perspective, he could probably break it open with some effort by himself. Given the dog’s huge size, if it really intended to break down the door, it would only be a matter of time.

Fortunately, the human-faced dog didn’t seem to have such intentions. It only barked a few times at the door before falling silent.

Zhou Jiayu was a bit worried. After looking left and right, he discovered there was a window on the side of the temple. The window had no paper on it—only a few wooden bars standing there.

“I’ll go see if that dog is gone…” Zhou Jiayu carefully walked to the window and glanced outside. He was shocked to discover that in the short time since he had entered the temple, the street outside had almost completely gone dark. A moon had risen in the sky. That moon was somewhat different from what Zhou Jiayu usually saw; the light it cast carried a faint dark red, causing the entire street to begin emitting a faint red glow.

Zhou Jiayu thought to himself that it was good he had come in early. He then clasped his hands together toward the fierce-looking Buddha statues behind him and bowed very sincerely.

The window offered a faint view of the doorway. After looking, Zhou Jiayu confirmed that the human-faced dog was gone.

“It’s gone.” Zhou Jiayu said. “Thank goodness… otherwise, if it kept blocking the door, wait…” He had just finished rejoicing when he felt something was wrong. He rubbed his eyes hard. “W-what is that on the ground?”

Jiba said, “…I don’t know.”

On the street where they had just been, the black bricks actually began to slowly rise one by one. At first, Zhou Jiayu thought it was his imagination, but the change was too obvious. He watched with his own eyes as human shapes struggled to emerge from within those black bricks one after another.

Calling them human shapes was because they only had a rough outline—no faces visible, no bodies distinguishable. After emerging from the bricks, they began crawling toward the same place, converging and merging, finally forming a complete person.

Zhou Jiayu truly felt that his scalp had been numb and tingling like electricity all day without stopping. He didn’t even dare look carefully at what that person looked like. He quickly crouched down in the corner below the wall, rubbing his face heavily.

“I swear, I’m never looking outside again.” Zhou Jiayu said this to Jiba.

Jiba said, “Actually, looking wouldn’t hurt…”

Before he could finish speaking, they heard an indescribable woman’s voice coming from outside the window. That voice was extremely pleasant, softly panting and humming, occasionally letting out small gasps of surprise. The voice was so seductive that it easily aroused that kind of desire in men. Honestly, if it were someone with less self-control, they might really have looked up.

But Zhou Jiayu? He was completely unmoved inside, his face full of cold indifference: “Stop calling. I don’t like women anyway. You’d have a better chance if you switched to a man’s voice.”

He was just talking to himself casually. Who knew that after these words came out, the voice outside actually stopped.

Zhou Jiayu cursed internally: “They can actually understand human speech??”

Jiba said, “…They were all human when alive. There’s no language barrier.”

Zhou Jiayu had nothing to say.

The outside quieted down. Zhou Jiayu had thought this matter was more or less over. But he had clearly underestimated the determination of those things outside… or rather, underestimated how attractive his physical body was to them.

When a certain sound began to ring out again, at first Zhou Jiayu was full of disdain. But when this voice made Zhou Jiayu feel vaguely familiar, he knew something terrible was happening.

“What’s going on? What’s going on??” Zhou Jiayu was going crazy. “Did you hear that?”

Jiba said, “…I heard it.”

“Am I hearing things??” For the first time since coming to this place, Zhou Jiayu’s emotions began to crumble a bit.

“No.” Jiba’s tone was somewhat heavy. “It’s Sir’s voice.”

Zhou Jiayu clutched his face in agony.

“Zhou Jiayu.” That was a voice unique to Lin Zhushui—somewhat cold, yet so familiar, carrying slight panting, calling Zhou Jiayu’s name: “Zhou Jiayu…”

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

This voice was far too similar to Lin Zhushui’s, causing Zhou Jiayu’s mind to even conjure up Lin Zhushui’s face.

“Zhou Jiayu.” That voice said, “Don’t you want to see me?”

Zhou Jiayu told himself this was fake.

“I came to save you.” The voice said, “I rushed here with such effort, and you aren’t even willing to look at me?”

Zhou Jiayu squeezed a curse through his teeth: “Look at your paralysis.”

“Don’t you like me?” When this sentence was spoken by the voice, Zhou Jiayu’s entire person nearly exploded. He said angrily, “I don’t like Sir! I don’t have improper thoughts about Sir, I just—I just—” He wanted to say that what he felt for Lin Zhushui was only admiration, but the words reached his lips and somehow couldn’t come out.

Zhou Jiayu couldn’t deceive himself anymore. He covered his ears, crouched under the window, and couldn’t speak.

“Stop lying to yourself.” The voice said, “You clearly like me so much. Since you like me, why won’t you even look at me? I’m about to leave. If you don’t come over now, you’ll be left here all alone.”

Zhou Jiayu didn’t make a sound, biting his teeth hard, his expression like a turtle retracted into its shell.

Seeing Zhou Jiayu not responding, the voice became somewhat exasperated: “Zhou Jiayu? Why aren’t you saying anything? You’re so cowardly—do you really think anyone would like you?”

When it said this, Zhou Jiayu actually felt a bit better, because he knew that with Lin Zhushui’s temperament, he would never say such things. Even if he knew of Zhou Jiayu’s filthy thoughts, he probably wouldn’t scold him, but would simply cut off contact with him like this. A strange anger rose in Zhou Jiayu’s heart, and he cursed: “Shut up already. Your voice imitation is so awful, where does it even sound like him? If I were you, I’d hurry up and enroll in a professional dubbing class. Your professional skill for making a living is this terrible—I’m really fucking worried you’ll starve to death here.”

Outside: “…”

Zhou Jiayu wanted to curse a few more sentences, but he felt something icy cold on his neck. He reached out to touch it and discovered that several locks of hair had somehow wrapped around his neck. He reflexively looked up and was frightened by the scene outside the window.

Pressed tightly against the top of the window was a ghastly pale face. That face was blocked outside by the bars, staring down at Zhou Jiayu with pitch-black eyes. And the hair behind its head had somehow extended through the bars and wrapped around Zhou Jiayu’s neck.

Zhou Jiayu quickly scrambled a few steps inside and pulled the hair wrapped around his neck off with his hands. If he had reacted any slower, he suspected he would have been strangled by the neck.

That thing seemed quite large and had a human face. It crouched half-squatting outside the window, tilting its face and constantly trying to squeeze in through the bars.

Zhou Jiayu watched with his heart in his throat, afraid those few seemingly flimsy wooden bars would break from the pressure.

But this temple’s grounds seemed somewhat special. Those few thin bars didn’t move at all despite the thing squeezing for a long time. It seemed somewhat anxious, and its mouth began emitting some sharp cries. At first listen, they sounded somewhat like a duck…

Zhou Jiayu had heard from folk legends before that ghost cries were similar to ducks. He hadn’t expected to actually have the chance to hear it.

Seeing that the thing couldn’t get in, Zhou Jiayu breathed a sigh of relief. He walked to the prayer mat in front of the Buddha statue and sat down, his whole body going a bit soft.

This thing, seeing it had no way to reach Zhou Jiayu, resentfully turned and left. Zhou Jiayu watched its retreating figure and inexplicably sensed a feeling of loneliness.

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Lonely my ass.

And this thing was only the prelude to the night on this street. Outside the window, a strong wind began to blow. This wind carried a thick fishy odor, making people very uncomfortable when smelling it.

The street at night was not quiet. Instead, many strange noises appeared. Zhou Jiayu even vaguely heard the sound of sharp weapons cutting into flesh. As for the crying of babies and women, he was almost numb to it. Even Zhou Jiayu, sitting in the temple unable to see anything, genuinely felt a taste of blood and carnage.

Normally speaking, an ordinary person would have long been curled into a ball, trembling with fear. But Zhou Jiayu’s mind wasn’t on this. He said to Jiba, “Jiba, did you hear everything just now?”

Jiba, who had originally been crouching on the turtle shell, stood up upon hearing Zhou Jiayu’s words and said vigilantly, “What, are you going to silence me?”

Zhou Jiayu: “…How would I silence you, dig out my brain?”

Jiba said, “Oh, that’s true too.” It scratched its sharp beak with one small foot and said, “Alright, what do you want to say?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “That… do you think, if Sir discovered my feelings…”

Jiba said very coldly and ruthlessly, “Did you hear the sounds outside?”

Zhou Jiayu: “…I heard them.”

Jiba said, “I guess that would be your fate.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” He touched his chest and once again disappointedly discovered he wasn’t carrying cigarettes. He really wanted to smoke one.

Jiba actually quite understood Zhou Jiayu’s feelings, because after all, what young man didn’t have springtime thoughts? But the problem was, it always felt that the occasion for these springtime thoughts was a bit wrong. The man was already dead, yet he was still worried about what would happen if his secret crush was discovered—had he gotten his priorities wrong?

The night had grown deep. The street seemed to have just awakened. All kinds of ghostly wails and wolf howls filled Zhou Jiayu’s ears. He even noticed blood water seeping in through the door. But when nerves are tense for too long, they lose elasticity like a rubber band. At first, Zhou Jiayu was extremely nervous. By the second half of the night, his entire person was expressionless. Near dawn, he even dozed off for a while against the stone platform at the foot of the Buddha statue.

When the night dispersed and the surroundings quieted again, Zhou Jiayu was awakened by Jiba. He yawned, climbed up from the prayer mat, and thanked the Buddha statues that had sheltered him for the night once again.

“There’s nothing outside anymore, right?” Zhou Jiayu stood by the door, somewhat hesitant.

“I don’t know.” Jiba said, “Be careful when you open it.”

Zhou Jiayu nodded. Following Jiba’s suggestion, he opened the door very carefully. Jiba’s words were indeed correct. The moment the door opened, something tumbled in through the temple door. Zhou Jiayu looked and discovered it was a lump of unidentifiable rotten meat.

Zhou Jiayu: “…” He pretended not to see it, silently went back inside to get a broom, and swept the thing out.

The restored calm of the street still showed traces of last night’s demonic chaos, but as the sky grew brighter, those remaining traces gradually disappeared.

Zhou Jiayu sat at the temple entrance, not daring to run around. He was just thinking about what to do when the tip of his nose caught a familiar scent. It was a faint sandalwood fragrance, clean and pure, completely out of place with the surrounding strange atmosphere. After smelling this scent, Zhou Jiayu immediately stood up and said, “I smelled it!!”

Seeing him so emotional, Jiba asked suspiciously, “What did you smell?”

“Sir’s scent!” Zhou Jiayu said.

Jiba said, “Sir’s scent??”

Only then did Zhou Jiayu realize what he said might be ambiguous and quickly explained: “Doesn’t Sir always have a sandalwood fragrance on him? I smelled it before.”

Jiba let out a meaningful “oh.”

Just as the two were speaking, this scent grew stronger and stronger. Zhou Jiayu stood up and searched in the direction the fragrance was coming from. He walked some distance toward the end of the street, looked around for a moment, then heard the sound of flowing water above his head. Like a murmuring stream, Zhou Jiayu looked up and was shocked to see that at some point, a small stream had actually appeared above his head.

That stream flowed from the canopy of the sky toward the ground. From Zhou Jiayu’s angle, he could even see the lively swimming fish and the emerald duckweed floating on the water’s surface.

Zhou Jiayu’s eyes went straight: “What is this…” That sandalwood scent was emanating from the stream water. He stopped his footsteps and didn’t go forward.

“Don’t walk anymore. Just wait here.” Jiba said, “It should be Lin Zhushui coming to pick you up.”

Zhou Jiayu finally smiled.

That stream indeed came toward Zhou Jiayu as Jiba had said, quickly flowing to Zhou Jiayu’s front. Zhou Jiayu was wondering how he should leave through the stream water when he saw a fish in the water that was originally only thumb-sized swim to his front and instantly grow to the size of a calf. It even wagged its tail at him, splashing water all over his face.

“Is this telling me to get on?” Zhou Jiayu was a bit dumbfounded.

“Probably…” Jiba pondered. “Try sitting on its back?”

Zhou Jiayu had no choice but to tentatively climb onto the fish’s back. The fish’s back was somewhat slippery; he had to press his whole body against it to avoid falling off. After confirming he was seated properly, the big fish leaped and began charging upward along the stream.

“Don’t look back.” Lin Zhushui’s voice drifted from somewhere unknown, but Zhou Jiayu heard it clearly.

At first, the fish swam very fast, but when it reached a certain height, its speed clearly slowed. Zhou Jiayu had thought it was tired from swimming, but he quickly felt that something wasn’t right—a hand had grabbed his foot.

There was clearly something behind Zhou Jiayu hindering his departure, but constrained by Lin Zhushui’s warning, he didn’t dare look back at all. The river water beneath him began to grow turbid, as if sand and gravel were being churned up. Zhou Jiayu stroked the fish beneath him, clutching the jade pendant in his hand, and began reciting the Diamond Sutra he had memorized before. A faint golden light appeared on both him and the fish. The fish seemed encouraged, flicked its tail heavily, and immediately Zhou Jiayu heard the sound of a heavy object falling into the water.

Having shaken off certain things, the fish instantly accelerated and swam even faster.

Through the reflection on the water’s surface, Zhou Jiayu vaguely saw what was behind him. Those things couldn’t even be called monsters—they were just disembodied hands appearing out of thin air. These hands constantly reached forward, wanting to pull them back, and were constantly knocked into the water by the faintly glowing fish tail, repeating this cycle over and over.

As the fish grew closer and closer to the sun, Zhou Jiayu’s body felt a sense of weariness. At first, he could still hold on, but later his eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Unable to keep them open, his eyes slowly closed. But before he finally fell asleep, Zhou Jiayu noticed that the round object constantly emitting light above his head wasn’t the sun at all, but a small exit. This world was like a well—once you fell in, you couldn’t get out. And normally, one could only look at the light outside through that small, round well opening.

Zhou Jiayu could no longer hold on. He closed his eyes and fell asleep. The fish beneath him leaped with all its might, jumping out of that narrow passage.

“Zhou Jiayu.” Someone was calling his name in a very strange tone.

“Zhou Jiayu—” There was more than one voice.

Zhou Jiayu felt as if his body didn’t belong to him. He could hear sounds from the outside world but couldn’t move. After struggling for a long time, he finally managed to move his fingers slightly.

“He moved! He moved!” The owner of the voice saw Zhou Jiayu’s movement and said in pleasant surprise, “He’s finally back! Wonderful!”

“Mm…” After who knew how long, Zhou Jiayu could finally open his eyes. But after opening them, his pupils took quite a while to focus before he could barely make out the scene before him.

Shen Yiqiong was sitting by his bed, grinning at him: “Zhou Jiayu, you’re finally awake. I thought we wouldn’t see each other again until our next lives.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

Seeing Zhou Jiayu’s dazed expression, Shen Yiqiong was shocked: “Why do you look like that? You didn’t go dumb, did you??” He waved his hand forcefully before Zhou Jiayu’s face and held out a few fingers. “How many is this?”

Zhou Jiayu said weakly, “Seven.”

Shen Yiqiong said, “This is clearly eight… Seven is vertical.”

Zhou Jiayu was on the verge of collapse, and he really wanted to reach out and hit Shen Yiqiong a couple of times to get him to stop fucking around with him.

Fortunately, Shen Yiqiong was just joking: “Don’t make that face. I’m afraid you’ll faint again. Wait a moment, I’ll go tell Sir that you’re back.” He ran out with a whoosh and quickly brought Lin Zhushui over.

The sandalwood scent on Lin Zhushui’s body was frighteningly strong. He hadn’t even arrived, yet Zhou Jiayu smelled it first. This scent made him feel especially at ease, feeling that he had finally returned to the normal world.

After Lin Zhushui arrived, he didn’t speak to Zhou Jiayu either. He reached out and touched his forehead: “What did you smear on your body while you were down there?”

Zhou Jiayu said listlessly, “Incense ash…”

“Smart.” Lin Zhushui nodded, indirectly praising Jiba. “I was originally worried you wouldn’t make it through that night.”

Zhou Jiayu looked at Lin Zhushui’s indifferent face and thought again of that seductive voice. He thought to himself that he had nearly not made it through…

“Yiqiong, is the medicine I had you boil ready?” Lin Zhushui asked.

Shen Yiqiong nodded, saying it was ready, then brought out a bowl of black medicinal liquid and handed it to Zhou Jiayu. Zhou Jiayu swore he had never smelled medicine this nauseating in his life.

“What medicinal ingredients are in here?” Zhou Jiayu asked very weakly.

“Just drink it. Don’t ask.” Shen Yiqiong looked at him with fatherly pity. “I’m afraid if you knew, you’d be even less able to drink it.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Since it had come to this, he wasn’t some delicate little girl either. He gritted his teeth, hardened his heart, pinched his nose, and gulped the medicine down into his stomach. After drinking it, Zhou Jiayu felt a wave of nausea and nearly threw up.

Seeing this, Shen Yiqiong quickly stuffed a candy into his mouth, saying whatever you do, don’t vomit. This medicine wasn’t easy to find.

Zhou Jiayu forced a smile, sucking on the candy and feeling like a terminal patient.

“What exactly happened to me?” But the effects of this medicine were quite good. After drinking it, the feeling of being unable to control his body was clearly alleviated. He recalled his experience at the temple fair and said with lingering fear, “Who was that old lady?”

Lin Zhushui didn’t speak. He made a gesture to Shen Yiqiong.

Shen Yiqiong understood and went out the door. A moment later, he brought in a cage containing an unusually large yellow weasel. Compared to the fair, tender one at home, this yellow weasel’s fur was also white, but its body was much larger, and its whiskers were quite long. One could tell it was quite old.

Seeing Zhou Jiayu awake, it chattered non-stop, then clasped its paws together and bowed several times to Zhou Jiayu.

Zhou Jiayu: “…A yellow weasel??”

“Yes.” Lin Zhushui said, “She originally just wanted to slap one soul and one spirit out of you to scare you, but she didn’t expect your entire soul to leave your body.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

Upon hearing this, the big yellow weasel instantly curled into a ball, its bean-sized eyes showing a wronged expression.

Normally, this would have looked quite cute, but unfortunately, Zhou Jiayu’s mind was full of the appearance of that old lady he had seen before. He really couldn’t find it cute. He said, “Thank you for your trouble, Sir, in helping me call back my soul…”

But Lin Zhushui said, “You’re too polite, Zhou Jiayu.”

He slightly emphasized the tone when he said “Zhou Jiayu,” as if emphasizing something.

Zhou Jiayu paused for a moment before realizing that the way Lin Zhushui called his name was actually like the way his friends had called his name before his rebirth… So Lin Zhushui calling him like this was hinting that his cover had been completely blown? Zhou Jiayu’s mood instantly became somewhat complicated…

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu: I don’t want to die, I just want to eat strawberries quietly with Sir.

Lin Zhushui: I don’t want to eat strawberries.

Zhou Jiayu: Huh?

Lin Zhushui: I only want to plant them.

Zhou Jiayu blushed.